1. Field of the Invention (Technical Field)
The present invention relates to methods and apparatuses for cooling an enclosed gimbal device.
2. Description of Related Art
Note that the following discussion refers to a number of publications by author(s) and year of publication, and that due to recent publication dates certain publications are not to be considered as prior art vis-a-vis the present invention. Discussion of such publications herein is given for more complete background and is not to be construed as an admission that such publications are prior art for patentability determination purposes.
Gimbal assemblies typically comprise a 3-axis assembly disposed within an outer 2-axis assembly to provide an overall 5-axis rotation. Such gimbal assemblies are commonly used to mount various technical devices, such as sensors, that must have freedom of movement in three dimensions. Some sensor gimbals, however, contain heat-generating devices, and current gimbal sensor designs are unable to efficiently remove heat generated from major sensor components. Sensor payloads generate substantial amounts of internal heat that must be removed; most known assemblies remove heat using liquid cooling, conduction, and air-to-air heat exchanger cooling systems, which are expensive, heavy and consume valuable payload space. Thus the cooling methods typically employed are not practical, especially with two relative moving bodies that require minimal torque disturbance to a precision inner gimbal assembly, especially under high vibration environment. Because the gimbal systems are extremely weight, space, and torque sensitive, the use of conventional heat reduction techniques are not practical.
Therefore, the problem is to design a method or apparatus for routing internally generated heat from the inner gimbal to the outer gimbal without compromising the system's performance and while maintaining a water-tight sensor payload. The design apparatus must be flexible and durable to meet requirements and to withstand harsh environments.
The present invention provides an efficient, lightweight, cost effective, less complex, and highly reliable solution to directly eliminate unwanted heat from a rotating precision sensor payload and transfer it to an external shroud without causing severe torque disturbances to the inner gimbal assembly.